death zone

English

Alternative forms

• Death Zone
• lethal zone

Etymology

Coined by Swiss physician and alpinist Edouard Wyss-Dunant in 1953 as lethal zone.

Noun

death zone (plural death zones)

1. (climbing) A area of land at sufficiently high altitudes in which there is not enough oxygen to sustain human life.

   Synonym: lethal zone

   • 2009 03, Ross Piper, Death Zone: Can Humans Survive at 26,000 Feet?, Capstone, →ISBN, page 10:

     That makes life even harder in the freezing temperatures of the death zone. High in the mountains the cold affects you quickly. You get goose bumps as your skin tries to trap warm air in the fine hairs that cover your body.

Translations

zone

• Finnish: kuolemanvyöhyke
• German: Todeszone (de) f
• Polish: strefa śmierci f (not idiomatic)

See also

• Armstrong line
• dead zone
• Kármán line
• kill zone